fool. Egad, I think that ought to satisfy you."

Lucy rose up and went to the window, where she stood for some moments,
her eyes sparkling and scintillating, and her bosom heaving with a tide
of feelings which were repressed by a strong and exceedingly difficult
effort. She then returned to the sofa, her cheeks and temples in a
blaze, whilst ever and anon she eyed her brother as if from a new point
of view, or as if something sudden and exceedingly disagreeable had
struck her.

"You look at me very closely, Lucy," said he, with a confident grin.

"I do," she replied. "Proceed, sir."

"I will. Well, as I was saying, you will find it remarkably comfortable
and convenient in many ways to be married to a fool: he will give you
very little trouble; fools are never suspicious, but, on the contrary,
distinguished for an almost sublime credulity. Then, again, you love
this other gentleman; and, with a fool for your husband, and the example
of the world before you, what the deuce difficulty can you see in the
match?"

Lucy rose up, and for a few moments the very force of her indignation
kept her silent; at length she spoke.

"Villain--impostor--cheat! you stand there convicted of an infamous
attempt to impose yourself on me as my legitimate brother--on my father
as his legitimate son; but know that I disclaim you, sir. What! the
fine and gentle blood of my blessed mother to flow in the veins of the
profligate monster who could give utterance to principles worthy of
hell itself, and attempt to pour them into the ears and heart of his own
sister! Sir, I feel, and I thank God for it, that you are not the son of
my blessed mother--no; but you stand there a false and spurious knave,
the dishonest instrument of some fraudulent conspiracy, concocted for
the purpose of putting you into a position of inheriting a name and
property to which you have no claim. I ought, on the moment I first
saw you, to have been guided by the instincts of my own heart, which
prompted me to recoil from and disclaim you. I know not, nor do I wish
to know, in what low haunts of vice and infamy you have been bred; but
one thing is certain, that, if it be within the limits of my power,
you shall be traced and unmasked. I now remember me that--that--there
existed an early scandal--yes, sir, I remember it, but I cannot even
repeat it; be assured, however, that this inhuman and devilish attempt
to poison my principles will prove the source of a retributive j